PRO FOOTBALL : Again, Lions Have ‘Em Crying in Detroit : Streaking Rams Meet a Struggling Opponent Today at the Silverdome

The Detroit Lions have become so amorphous and anonymous in recent years that Coach Darryl Rogers this week challenged anyone from Los Angeles to name a player on his defense.

Alex Karras? George Plimpton?

Actually, someone threw Rogers for a loop when they came up with former Ram Ivory Sully, a reserve safety. “You had to search, though, didn’t you,” Rogers said.

Speaking of searches, the Lions are desperately seeking a winning game plan. They will play host to the Rams today at the Silverdome 10 days after a 27-20 Thanksgiving loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, previously believed to be the worst team in the National Football League.

The Lions (2-9) no doubt had their spirits lifted Thursday when owner William Clay Ford announced that Rogers will be returning for yet another season, presumably 1988.

Remember, the Fords also approved plans for the Edsel.

Detroit is the team you want next to you when things are going bad. The Rams (4-7) look like NFL muscle men in comparison. The Rams have won three games in a row and have their eyes fixed on four more victories and a winning season.

The Lions, this time of year, usually have their eyes fixed on turkey leftovers. So much for the therapeutic value of that 10-day rest. The team has lost 11 of its last 12 games played after the annual Cranberry Classic on Thanksgiving. The Lions, it seems, are streaking toward 12 of 13.

Someone pass the Rams the gravy.

“They’re obviously not playing good,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “They’re a team where you could say, ‘Oh my God, what happened to these guys?’ They played Washington even when they played them.”

That was on Nov. 15, when the Lions lost to the Redskins, 20-13.

That was also after Ford came out and called his team just plain lousy after a 34-33 loss to the Green Bay Packers in October.

In that game, though, the Lions staged their greatest comeback in history and could have won had Eddie Murray connected on a 45-yard field goal.

“Things probably never would have been said had the ball gone through the uprights,” Rogers said.

Ford might well have saved his speech for the next week, when his team was beaten, 34-0, by the Denver Broncos.

Rogers has felt the heat all season, reprieve or no reprieve.

“There’s no question about pressure,” Rogers said. “Anytime you’re not winning there’s pressure in the NFL. It isn’t something you can sit around and worry about on a daily basis.”

And maybe Rogers hasn’t received a fair shake this season, in which his team has been riddled with injury and turmoil. In fact, Rogers said the Lions will probably be without 10 starters today, including the starting backfield of Garry James, who has a shoulder injury, and James Jones, who has a neck problem.

They probably will be replaced by Karl Bernard and Gary Ellerson.

About the only recognizable name on defense is first-round pick Reggie Rogers, a talented defensive end who has been plagued with emotional problems all season, possibly relating to the death of brother Don of a drug overdose in June of 1986. Rogers was put on the inactive list in November to seek counseling but has since rejoined the team.

Still, these are young Lions. All but 11 of them were born in the 1960s. Darryl Rogers hopes to be around long enough to see his team grow up.

“I want to try to keep our people together as a football team and constantly remind them that this is a team effort, that these guys are going to be together for more than just this year and that they’re laying the groundwork to be a good franchise before it’s over,” he said.

There’s still a string to be played out this season, however, but things would have been easier had the Lions met the Rams a month or so ago, when this could have been a real battle for the bottom.

“The last few games, they’ve looked like the Rams of old,” Lion quarterback Chuck Long said. “I don’t know if playing them earlier in the schedule would have helped us or not. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”

Ram Notes

This will be tight end David Hill’s first game in Detroit since he was traded from the Lions to the Rams in 1983. “I can go back, now that Monty Clark’s gone,” Hill said of the former Detroit coach, who still hasn’t made Hill’s Christmas card list. Hill promises that if he catches a scoring pass today, he’ll resurrect the end zone dance he made famous in the Motor City. . . . Ram tailback Charles White needs 426 yards in the next four games to reach 1,378 yards this season, the cumulative total of his first seven years in the NFL. White needs to average about 106 yards a game to break the mark. He has averaged 154 yards a game in his last three games and leads the NFL with 952 yards.

Detroit starting wide receiver Pete Mandley’s wife and two children had reservations last August for Northwest Flight 255, which crashed just after take-off in Detroit, killing all but one aboard. Mandley’s family decided to stay in Detroit an extra day before returning home to Phoenix, the flight’s destination. . . . Ram defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur began his NFL coaching career with the Lions in 1975 and coached there through the 1977 season.